In Global Water Intelligence this month

Need to know

There seems to be a deluge of mergers and acquisitions activity in the sector, following in the wake of Suez’s €3.2 billion acquisition of GE Water. Severn Trent is looking for buyers for its US contract ops business. Macquarie is looking to sell a 55% stake in the Aquarion Water Company. Aqualyng is understood to be negotiating a significant new deal...

The Severn Trent Services sale is likely to attract a lot of interest, despite the fact that the contract operations market has been sluggish (last year, revenues at the big five operators declined 1.9% overall, according to our survey on p10). STS had revenues of $188 million last year, which is a good size for a platform acquisition, and unlike...

Having received an approach late last year from CH2M Hill, UK-based engineering firm WS Atkins is now mulling a $3.5 billion offer from Canadian engineer SNC-Lavalin. Partly thanks to the parallel M&A activities already undertaken by the two firms, the combination would create...

For those interested in owning regulated water assets, Affinity Water in the UK looks set to be the next opportunity for investors. It has appointed Citigroup – which seems to have become the go-to investment bank for UK utility sales – to undertake...

UK water companies lost their monopoly over business customers on 1st April this year, and in the first week of the new arrangement almost 9,000 businesses switched supplier. With 20 retailers now licenced to sell to business customers, 10% of the 1.2 million strong customer base is expected to switch...

Chinese state-owned engineering giant China Gezhouba Group (CGGC) announced that its overseas investment subsidiary had made its first investment in the international water sector, paying an estimated $147 million for Brazilian water concessionaire Sistema Produtor de Água São Lourenço...

Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation has also been attracted to Brazil’s water concessions market. It is rumoured to be in talks to take a 14% stake in market-leading concessionaire Odebrecht Ambiental. It is part of a larger transaction yet to be finalised, which would see...

Beijing Enterprises Water Group, China Everbright Water and CITIC Group – all powerful Chinese state-owned enterprises with strong existing water platforms – have joined Australian private equity firms in the race for water project developer Trility...

Ceramic membrane specialist LiqTech International was staring down the barrel as GWI went to press. It needs to secure a $4 million investment from Chinese water engineer Hunan Yonker by 15 April, otherwise it may run out of cash. Investors on a call discussing the company’s poor 2016 financial results questioned Liq- Tech’s ability to survive without...

HaloSource, the point-of-use disinfection business that has been traded on London’s Alternative Investment Market since 2010, has given itself to the end of this quarter to find a new investor or go bust. The company had almost limitless ambition at its IPO, saying that its technology could save...

After half a decade of torpor, the Saudi Arabian desalination market – the largest in the world – sprang back into life in April with two major contract awards for plants at...

Cape Town is preparing to fast-track its first ever desalination plant and its first potable reuse plant in an attempt to mitigate the effects of a drought which has left it with only 100 days of water in storage...

New standards for the quality of treated municipal sewage in India are expected to unleash a flood of new tertiary treatment and nutrient removal projects, and could be written into law next month...

Aguas de Antofagasta last month announced a $300 million four-year infrastructure investment programme, which includes up to $...

Two of Canada’s design-build- finance-but-not-operate wastewater treatment plant projects reached financial close this month. An Acciona-led team secured a Can$525 million (US$391 million) contract for a wastewater treatment plant in Vancouver, British Columbia, while a Suez-led consortium secured a...

A consortium of Synagro, Maple Reinders and Bird Construction has closed a Can$50 million finance package to fund a biosolids project in Hamilton, Ontario. The project has two income streams – one from...

Water treatment specialist Solenis is aggressively expanding the equipment and digital side of its offering as it seeks to take...

Anyone feeling that digital solutions are getting ahead of themselves should read the feature on cyber security on p50 in the CTO section of this magazine. The absence of industry standards for security and protocols for security fixes is...

Project Tracker

Project Tracker

Charting the progress of over 900 Desal, Reuse and PPP water projects in the international water industry.

The List

This month’s list looks at who is holding power in desal. The big off-takers and regulators feature highly, followed by the big business leaders, but those at the forefront of new technologies also make the cut.

Chart of the month

Water Leaders

Last month the Global Water Leaders’ Group launched a new initiative to highlight the achievements of the top performing utilities in the world. It has ambitions to change the way the water industry works.

Singapore PUB’s chief executive Peter Ng has another goal in mind: being the best for Singapore. It means pursuing impossible performance targets, pushing the boundaries of technology, and still worrying about how to win the trust of customers.

Chief Technology Officer

User Perspectives

Austrian oil and gas leader OMV has built environmental responsibility into its corporate identity, but as its core fields mature, it is having to adapt constantly to new operational parameters. GWI discovers how it plans to tackle the future landscape of the industry.

CTO Outlook

Amid a backdrop of unprecedented levels of attention towards China’s environmental problems, China Everbright Water has ramped up the scope of its technology development. GWI talks to the project developer’s technical director to find out the rewards being reaped.

The former Ashland water treatment business has restored profitability and boosted its automation and control offering since being bought out by private equity in 2014. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics are next on the agenda.

A clutch of wastewater and biosolids projects reached financial close this month, restoring faith in the concept of the PPP procurement model for water infrastructure in Canada. What are the dynamics at play?

The complexities of a new secondary wastewater treatment plant in Metro Vancouver required private sector intervention at every level of the planning process. The municipality will only have a year to get up to speed before taking over operational responsibility.

Stantec has sold its highly profitable stand-alone software business Innovyze less than a year after acquiring the firm through its purchase of MWH Global. Is shedding its in-house smart water platform a smart move?

The deal will see the Canadian engineering firm return to the US municipal water sector after the dissolution of the Hatch Mott MacDonald joint venture stripped it of its muni interests south of the border.

Days after California’s Sierra snowpack ended the season at a near-record 163% of normal, Governor Brown ended the drought state of emergency in most areas of the state. He cautioned, however, that “Conservation must remain a way of life.”

Asia pacific

Three Chinese state-owned enterprises have joined a clutch of Australian private equity firms in the race to buy water treatment plant operator Trility. The need to secure approval from BOT clients – and rising protectionism in politics – could make for a long negotiation.

CGGC is looking for more brownfield and greenfield concession opportunities as it seeks to leverage its experience and financial strength to transform itself from an EPC giant into an international project developer.

The merger between Indian EPC contractor Earth Water Group and Norway’s Aqualyng looks to be off the cards. With an eye to an initial public offering in 2018 or 2019, Aqualyng is understood to be carrying out due diligence on an alternative merger option.

The Indian government is in the final stage of consultation on new standards for the quality of treated sewage, which it is widely believed will necessitate the upgrade of all existing wastewater treatment plants to tertiary treatment levels. Not all experts agree.

Two provincial Chinese water companies tried the same strategy this month, taking on Beijing Enterprises Water Group as a cornerstone investors and launching IPOs on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It did not seem to work.

Trial GWI Magazine today

Europe

Tight municipal budgets and rising non-compliance levels at wastewater treatment plants in southern Spain have created a vicious circle of under-investment. With central government spending set to fall, is there a greater role for the private sector?

Parliamentarians have called for an independent audit of the procurement bodies embroiled in the corruption scandal that has rocked the Spanish water sector. Allegations of a hidden public sector deficit could have wider implications for Spain’s relationship with the EU.

The initial flurry of customers who changed their retail water supplier under new UK competition rules is expected to be sustained over the next year. With 20 retailers now holding licences, how soon before the shake-out begins?

Middle East and Africa

After years of waiting, April saw the first major moves for years in Saudi Arabia’s desalination market, with two huge projects awarded within 24 hours of each other. The Red Sea port of Shoaiba marks the epicentre of activity as the market continues to unfold.

The commissioning of the first seawater desal facility in Jordan has created a wave of new interest in the concept. The success of further installations could rest on a relaxing in attitudes from the government.

Mosbah Helali has been appointed chief executive of Tunisian bulk water producer and national water utility Sonede, following the dismissal of Mohamed Dahech last month. Helali was previously director of central planning at the utility.

After years of focusing on transfers and storage schemes, drought has finally forced the city of Cape Town to take action on securing alternative water supplies. How do desalination and reuse factor into the city’s long-term plans?